our girl, luna…

Have I told you about our girl, Luna?

She’s a blessing that came from the Wabash County Animal Shelter. A year ago, somebody found a little, scraggly, dirty Siamese kitten and took it to the shelter. I was there shortly after she was dropped off, getting supplies for a kitten that I was fostering.

I walked in the door and there in the nearest cage was this little kitten with big eyes and a meow that was not to be ignored. I picked her up and she sat, up straight, in the palm of my hand, staring those big blue eyes right back at me. Something clicked in my brain…a memory. Jim had mentioned more than once that he had always wanted a Siamese cat.

I asked one of the volunteers if the cat was spoken for. I was told several people had asked about her, but she wasn’t promised to anyone yet. I shared Jim’s wishes and was told to take her home and see what he thought. And so, I did.

No longer had I pulled out of the shelter drive and onto the blacktop when I started having second thoughts. You see, we’d lost our precious Bucky, our fourteen-year-old boy, just two months before. I knew Jim wasn’t ready for another cat yet. But I already had her loaded up and by now I was almost home. It wouldn’t hurt to let her spend the night.

Like most nights in the summer, Jim came home from work…hot, tired and dirty. He came in and sat on the couch, half asleep already. Here came that little kitten, crawled up the couch, up Jim’s chest, licked his chin and proceeded to snuggle up under Jim’s chin and go to sleep.

That was it…end of the story. Jim fell in love and we had a new little girl in the family. Since the Lunar Eclipse was drawing near, Jim named her Luna.

Luna was a Daddy’s girl from the start. She comes running from any corner of the house when she hears Jim’s truck pull up. Every morning, she bounces across me to sit on Jim’s side of the bed until he whispers to her and rubs her ears. (Which is a step up from when she was a kitten…she licked his nose and sneezed in his face!)

She’s grown into a true beauty. The only mark of “imperfection” is a knot on her nose she got as a kitten when she tried to fly from the top of our bookcase. Jim brought her to me and asked what to do for a cat with a bloody nose. I think he was more upset than she was.

She’s quite a girl, our Luna. She loves running down the hall to visit Grandma, who spoils her rotten with new toys. She stays close by my side when I’m down with a migraine. She’s fiercely jealous of the other kittens I bring home to foster, until the “funny smell” wears off…then she loves having playmates.

She’s a source of infinite joy…our Luna.

And we certainly are blessed to have her.

In ancient times, cats were worshiped as gods; they have not forgotten this.
-Terry Pratchett